Burke is not above sending a message through the media and so, when asked what he’s learned thus far of Baertschi, he answered: “That I don’t know. That I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’ll tell you, I watched him in his draft year because we had a player, Brad Ross, that we’d drafted in Toronto. This kid is a gifted kid that left home at an early age to get to a better hockey level. All I’ve seen so far is flashes of brilliance. Flashes of brilliance are fine if you’re working in the university, but they’re not much good to people in an NHL building.

“There are three zones in the ice surfaces in this league. I don’t see that he’s learned to play and compete in two of them. He’s got to learn there’s a clock in this league and there’s so many minutes in the game and that you’ve got to compete through all of it. I see this is a guy who’s focusing on one area (scoring) and even then, sporadically.

“So I don’t know what we have. I’m not ready to quit on a young kid. I’m not ready to throw him under the bus here today and rip him, but I think you can tell from my comments that I see big holes and I see a lack of commitment that’s not going to get him anywhere in my books.”

It was vintage Brian Burke - all measured too, not angry, just stating the facts as he saw them. If doesn’t light under Baertschi, it is hard to know what will.